The excitement of the local People’s Congress elections in the electoral districts of Chengdu, Sichuan has given way to sadness. Serious violations of election regulations occurred. In some electoral districts, the time of voting was changed just before the vote. This forced people to rise before dawn to vote in the dark. Some ballot boxes were not sealed or were not counted. Some independent candidates were forced to go away on a trip.

On election day for the Wenjiang District, Chengdu People’s Congress balloting starting on Sunday (February 25) before dawn and ended at 9 AM. Many ballot boxes were piled up outside the polling place. From Wenjiang District candidate Wang Binru)

The Wenjiang District People’s Congress voting took place on Sunday. Wang Binru, who was deprived of her status as an independent candidate by the authorities, told reporters that on Saturday evening she received a text message from the election office asking the local residents in her electoral group to vote between 6 AM and 8 AM. When she got to the polling place at 8 AM, she was told that the election was already over. Even more astonishing was that the authorities used the strange method of knocking on people’s doors before dawn to tell them to go and vote.

Wang Binru said: “Very few people would get up before dawn to vote. Opening the polls before dawn is extraordinary. Some candidates even went around knocking on doors in the middle of the night. Many people were still sleeping, others weren’t at home. What the authorities really want is that nobody votes.”

Wang Binru pointed out that after the election workers declaring that the balloting was over, there was never any counting of ballots out loud. Not until Monday afternoon did a notice appear that the two official candidates got the most votes. Requests for information such as how many people voted were met with a yawn. She criticized the authorities for running the election as a black-box operation.

Wang Binru said: “The notice didn’t tell us how many ballots were issued, how many ballots came back. The authorities announced that their two candidates won with 2000 votes and 1000 votes but they didn’t say how many people cast votes. The election law requires that candidates get over half of the votes but without this information there is no way to question that.”

In the Jinniu District, every person who cast a vote got a 20 RMB subsidy. (photo provided by Jinniu District independent candidate Hou Guiying)

Another independent candidate from the same district, Wu Yong, when she was going to vote was stopped by police from distributing her election statement. They claimed that what she was doing was illegal and confiscated her election materials. When she went to vote, she noticed that the bottom of the ballot box was open and that the ballot box was not locked and so committing election fraud would be easy.

Wu Young said, “Some ballot boxes were not locked. I picked up the ballot box to see how many ballots had been cast. It turned out that the bottom of the ballot box was open. Ballots could easily be taken out. After balloting, the election workers did not call out the votes on the spot, nor did they check the ballots. They just took the ballot boxes away. The winners were decided in advance. The electoral process was all confused and illegal.”

During Monday balloting in the Qingyang District, the independent candidate Wang Rongwen was taken away from her home by a group of ten public security officers and local leaders and was forcibly kept under tight control under after balloting was over. This journalist called her cell phone. Wang Rongwen’s son answered. he told this reporter that his mother had been continually persecuted by the authorities because of her candidacy. Now she has been forcibly taken on a trip. He accused the authorities of arbitrarily restricting the freedom of a citizen. He said, “After they took my mother away on Monday, they took her to the polling place and then kept her under their control. She called me that evening at 9 PM to tell me that the authorities have taken here to a Chengdu suburb where she would be detained for four to five days. The freedom of my mother has been restricted for no reason.”

After the balloting ended, the unsealed ballot boxes were taken away by workers. The votes were not called out or counted on the spot. (Wenjiang District candidate Wang Binru)

Jinniu District candidate Hou Guiying said she was given a 20 RMB cash subsidy when she cast her ballot. She said that the amount of the subsidy varied by district. The smallest was 5 RMB in the Chenghua District. The highest was 50 RMB in the Jianbei District. Most of the subsidies were about 20 RMB. Hou Guiying said that many independent candidates were monitored and followed on election day.

Huang Qi, director of the 64Tianwang network, established in Chengdu an election planning center to help independent candidates. Huang Qi told reporters that elections in mainland China lack democratic oversight. The authorities manipulate election results so elections are just for show. He said, “For many years, the mainland authorities have never truly implemented the provisions of the election law. There is a law on local elections but it is not followed. The electoral process is a black-box operation. Many independent candidates have taken part in the election. They have repeatedly pointed out many violations of laws and regulations but the response of the authorities has been to repress the independent candidates more and more forcefully.”

Huang Qi said that mainland has a long way to go before it can have democratic elections. He called on people in all walks of life to take part in the elections as independent candidates so as to exercise democratic oversight and to push forward the democratization process in China.

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About 高大伟 David Cowhig

Worked 25 years as a US State Department Foreign Service Officer including ten years at US Embassy Beijing and US Consulate General Chengdu and four years as a China Analyst in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Before State I translated Japanese and Chinese scientific and technical books and articles into English freelance for six years. Before that I taught English at Tunghai University in Taiwan for three years. And before that I worked two summers on Norwegian farms, milking cows and feeding chickens.